Vinod Kumar'

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The entire India skipped a beat when Vinod Kumar threw his discus to 19.91m in Men’s F52 category on Sunday to secure a Paralympics bronze. The medal became much more special as it was India's third medal of the day. Notably, till Saturday, the country didn't have a single medal at the ongoing Tokyo Paralympics 2020, however, Sunday saw a big turnaround in India's fortune as the nation got three medals on the day.

It all started with Bhavina Patel's silver medal in table tennis in the morning. It was followed by another silver by Nishad Kumar at high jump event. Vinod then made the countrymen happier by clinching a bronze to see the country bag three medals in less than 12 hours. However, if a latest report is to be believed, Vinod's bronze has gone under scrutiny after his medical classification got reportedly challenged by his opponents. If the report turns out to be true, Vinod's medical classification will be reviewed and his medal will be withheld until he gets a favourable verdict.

Vinod Kumar’s 19.91 at the Paralympics is now an Asian Record. He threw the discuss to 17.46m, 18.32m, 17.80m, 19.12m, 19.91m, and 19.81m in his six attempts with the best coming in the second last one. On the other hand, Piotr Kosewicz of Poland attained a distance of 20.02m to bag gold medal at the event. He achieved the feat on his second attempt. Meanwhile, Velimir Sandor of Croatia registered a distance of 19.98m at the competition to take home the bronze medal.

Before Vinod, Bhavina Patel had lost to world no 1 Zhou Ying 7-11, 5-11, 6-11 in the final of Class 4 table tennis event to see India clinch a silver, which was also the country’s first medal at the ongoing event in Tokyo. The contest, which lasted for more than 20 minutes, saw Bhavina struggling against her opponent, eventually losing the game in straight sets. Later in the day, Nishad Kumar put up a sensational effort to bag a silver in high jump T47.

When the entire nation was celebrating all the three medals, PM Narendra Modi also took to Twitter to wish all the winners on Sunday. However, it will be interesting to see how the story of Vinod Kumar unfolds from here on.